Trevecca employees prepare for TNT

Feeding over 1,000 people more than usual on campus for the next few days means the cafeteria needs more food than it can hold.

The tent is up, parking lots are full and hundreds of teenagers are walking around campus. TNT, or Top Nazarene Talent, is underway and many Trevecca employees are working behind the scenes to make it happen.

Top Nazarene Talent, TNT, is an annual event that brings youth groups from different Nazarene churches in the southeast region to Trevecca to participate in a three-day event that showcases their talents.

Donna Cavin, Service Manager for Pioneer College Caterers, along with 50 student workers and 20 Pioneer workers, will be preparing and serving 1,876 plates each meal for the teenagers participating in TNT. That’s about 2,500 plates including the participant’s families and Trevecca students.

The extra food has been delivered.

“We get a tractor trailer to deliver it, like an 18 wheeler, and they just drop the back part of it all. We will have all of our stock in there,” said Cavin.

With that much food, there will also be garbage to clean up afterwards.

Glen Linthicum, director of plant operations, and his workers will help with the garbage disposal.

“This year we will have a dumpster diner which is kind of cool for waste management,” said Linthicum. “It looks like a giant construction dumpster.”

Linthicum and his team of 20 workers have been working for the past week on preparations for the event.

Putting gates in, sprucing up the campus, and moving picnic tables are among the early preparations they made.

About a week ago, they started to move lamp posts by the baseball field to make room for the tent. The tent will hold about 3,000 people and will be where meals are served.

Even with all of the preparations and cleaning that accompanies TNT, Linthicum and Cavin still have fun with it.

“We enjoy it,” said Cavin. “It’s a lot of fun and we enjoy being outside.”

Linthicum agrees.

“It used to be more of a frustrating event for me but now I just enjoy it. I’ve come to peace with all of the craziness that comes with it,” said Linthicum.